A Genius's Paradise
by TheRoneBone
Summary: James and Lily survive, giving birth to the boy-who-lived's younger brother, Harry. A child-genius, Harry decides to go to Beauxbatons for his schooling. There, he'll have adventures, make friends, and aid the war against dark. Contains: No James/Lily/Dumbledore bashing. No Wrong-bwl. Harry/Gabrielle. And my personal favorite character of all time: Sheldon Cooper


**You always get those stories where James and Lily survive and have another child. This is the story of the other child. The one who's not the boy who lived, but who is perhaps even more special.**

**Chapter 1: Beauxbatons**

"Tell me where you're going again, so that you don't mess up," James said.

"Alright, I have to get to the English portkey point, which meets up at Gringotts at eleven," Harry said confidently. "Then I have to go to France, portkey to the Beauxbaton portkey point in France, which leaves at 12:30, and then I have to portkey to Beauxbatons, which leaves at one. Shouldn't be a problem."

"Are you sure that you don't want us to come with you?" James asked. "It's really no trouble at all."

"Yes, I'm sure," Harry said.

"Well alright then. So why don't you head on down to Gringotts," Lily said.

"Mum, it's only 7:00." Harry said. "I'll be fine."

"It's just I don't feel comfortable sending you so far away." Lily said.

"Hogwarts is in the tip of Scotland; Beauxbatons is geographically closer than Hogwarts," Harry said.

"How do you know where Hogwarts is?" James asked.

"Hogwarts a History. You should try reading it some time." Harry said.

"That's not what I mean. I went to Hogwarts, your father went to Hogwarts, Godric's going to Hogwarts. Our family heritage has been there, I just would feel more comfortable if you went there," she said.

"I would, but let's face it. Hogwarts has worsened over the years, while Beauxbatons just gets better and better." Harry defended.

"I know. It's not too late to change your mind, you know." she said.

"Mother, I will be fine," Harry said.

"You packed?" James asked. "Have everything you need? Including that special item,"

"James, what did you do now?" Lily asked.

"Nothing, Lily-flower. Just gave Harry a little something to help him with his studies." James said.

Lily let a low chuckle, then decided not to press the issue. James was never an advocate for- well, just for learning in general. The idea that James had given Harry something to help him learn was preposterous.

"You sure you don't want to go to Hogwarts?" Lily asked. "Hogwarts doesn't start till September, so you'll get more free time for that project you've been working on," she said.

"Yes, I am sure, mother," Harry said, annoyed.

"Alright, alright. Fine. Let's go to Gringotts right now, and before you say it's too early, we need to go get your pocket money first." she said.

"Fine," Harry said. The three floo'd to Gringotts, the two parents nervous, and Harry excited.

* * *

Harry sat in the large portkey waiting room at Gringotts, lost in his own thoughts. He was excited for his upcoming journey to Beauxbatons; he would finally be leaving home. Harry reflected upon his earlier home life.

He was born on January 12, 1996. He was told it was the coldest day of the year, but of course, he couldn't remember it. He had a very powerful memory, a near-eidetic one to be precise. But his memory was clearly not eidetic, for he could not fully memorize and retain information.

Harry was born to a very wealthy family in the magical society; the Potter family was a very old family line. His father was probably worth about one hundred million galleons in the magical world, which equated to half a billion pounds. The magical population was much wealthier on average than the Muggle population, but still, Harry's father probably had more money than small countries.

But his family was special; in fact, it was probably the most well-known family in all of magical Britain, even if it wasn't the richest. Harry's older brother, Godric Potter, was a celebrity, famous for defeating Lord Voldemort. The self-proclaimed dark lord was in the process of taking over the magical world, and eliminating the Muggle-born population. He was essentially the Adolf Hitler of the magical world, except instead of sending Muggle-born's to concentration camps, he ordered their extermination. He managed to take over half of England, and he was very powerful. There was a cultural element present in magical wars that was not present in Muggle wars: the general of an army had to lead his followers into battle in order to gain the respect and trust of his underlings. And Voldemort was strong; immensely so. He was probably the strongest wizard in the world, and seemed impossible to take down. But for some reason, one night, Voldemort decided as an undercover mission, he would attack the Potter family (Harry reckoned it was for the money). Before Harry was born, Godric, Lily, and James stood against Voldemort, but the interesting thing was that Voldemort did not kill Lily and James immediately Instead, he stunned them, bound them, and advanced on Godric. This only reaffirmed Harry's suspicions that he was after the money; after all, he would have to force James to withdraw all of the Potter money, and put it into a separate account. But Voldemort advanced upon Godric, and shot a killing curse at him. And then ... no one agreed upon the rest. Lily, James, Godric, none of them would say anything about it. One thing that everyone could agree on, though, was that something had happened that day, with Godric. He had somehow resisted the killing curse, and ended up killing Voldemort. There were wild tales about what happened that night; some said that Godric had attacked Voldemort with a Quidditch broom after dodging the curse, others said that he absorbed the curse into his hand, and then slapped Voldemort. But the point was that Voldemort died, and Godric had triumphed.

And Harry had been born two years later, three years younger than Godric. Lily and James were extremely happy to have another son, and spent a lot of time with both him and Godric. As a young child, Harry had many happy memories of playing with his older brother, and with Lily and James. However, they didn't know when to stop.

Harry reasoned that they thought of him as weaker than Godric, simply because he hadn't blocked a killing curse as a child. And he couldn't blame them for that, but since they treated Godric normally, they had to overcompensate for him, by babying him. It really wasn't that bad, but Harry had no freedom. He wasn't allowed to go out without Lily or James accompanying him, he couldn't go flying without one of them witnessing and gasping whenever he attempted a stunt on the safety-broom, and he was treated as if he were fragile. Freedoms that other wizarding children took for granted were lost for Harry, and he really hated that.

But Harry was able to sneak out at nights. He visited the vast Potter library during the night, choosing the pleasure of knowledge over the comfort of sleep. His knowledge accumulation started when he was 5, and could fluently read. On a good day, Harry got about 5 or 6 hours of sleep, but some nights, he barely slept at all. Eventually, he was able to fully forgo sleep, and meditate for one hour instead, getting a boost on his mental magic training and not wasting time asleep. The hours from 10 to 7 were his, and his alone.

His knowledge extended from the theories of spell creation to complex transfiguration, to wandsmithery, to Muggle studies, to mental magic. He was able to create his own wands, following the descriptions in the books, and while at first, they were unable to take high amounts of magic, eventually the wands he made became better and better, until they were on par with those from lesser wand shops, such as Ivanoff's wands. Although still not as good as Ollivander wands or Gregorovitch wands, which were top of the market, Harry could easily sell his wands to Mr. Ivanoff for at least one or two galleons profit per wand, which was about fifty pounds a galleon. Judging that it took him about two hours to build a wand, it was pretty good money for him; especially considering that he was eight years old when he began selling. He ordered all of the parts through owl-order, sold the wands through owl-order, and received the pay again, through owl-order, meaning he never actually had to leave his house to build the wands. He was also able to make wands for his own use in studying elementary magic.

The Potter manor was absolutely huge, with many rooms that not even Lily or James knew were there. Harry had found himself a laboratory of sorts, which he made all of his wands in. He was fairly certain that Lily and James did not know of the room's existence, as Harry was quite sure that before he entered, the room had not been used in many years. But he was able to clean it up and use it as his base.

His magical knowledge grew quickly from his time in the Potter library. He almost literally soaked up all of the knowledge he could gain from the vast library. His Occlumency and Legimency were much stronger than that of the average Occlumens or Legimens, and he was still gaining skill in the area. Though he had no one to practice with, he was able to secure his mind like that of a computer: everything was stored neatly and needed a password or a memoric trace to open. But rather than having a specific word or memory as the password, Harry simply was the password; in essence, the amalgamation of memories and personality traits that made up Harry was required in order to access Harry's own memories. His current thoughts could be found in his RAM, a file that was constantly updated, and automatically sorted his memories into their appropriate places. Eventually, Harry found that as his Occlumency grew stronger, the computer system he had grew less as a construct, and more like how his mind was actually organized. To enter his own mind, Harry took to meditation. Concentrating on his computer system construct would bring it up, and Harry was able to replay his old memories through the construct. In the replay, Harry was not merely observing the scene; he was part of the scene again; though he was forced to make the same decisions. As for Legimency, Harry didn't have much practice with that. Harry was not naive enough to think that eye-contact was necessary for Legimency; while that was one of the ways to do it, skilled Legimens could enter the minds of others from halfway across the globe. The only thing necessary for Legimency was a magical connection, which could be built through the spell Legimens, through eye-contact, or through a variety of other mind-affecting spells including the Cruciatus Curse. Once the Legimency connection was built, it would be up to the Legimens or the Occlumens to break it; if neither did, the minds would be connected for long periods of time. Harry did have practice in Legimency, but only with creatures, not with humans. However, testing his skills against one of the magical owls of the Potter manor, Azelia, really challenged him, as she had strong mental shields.

Besides Occlumency and Legimency, Harry had taken to learning a wide variety of other magical subjects. He had particularly taken to transfiguration, and was working on the advanced subjects of conjuration and vanishing. Additionally, his skill in other forms of magic increased too. He figured out that the words used to say a spell really didn't make a difference in whether the spell was cast; it was all an elaborate placebo effect. With this in mind, he was able to create new spells that did exactly what he wanted them to do. He tested some of his spells on conjured lab-rats, and most of them worked. He figured that the only thing necessary for a spell to be cast was intent, and proper wand movement. For example, for a shielding spell, the wand had to face horizontally, parallel to the person, but for an attacking spell, the wand movement was a thrust forward. Transfiguration and other neutral spells involved flourishes and twists, but essentially had the same result.

But, like all good things, Harry's exploration into magic couldn't last. At a tender young age of nine, when Harry was experimenting with a new idea for a broom, he had unfortunately gotten so caught up into his work that he did not realize it was morning already. And when the Potters couldn't find him in his room, they freaked out. Harry's laboratory was soundproof, a boon in most cases as he sometimes made a lot of noise when he was working, but in this case, it was a problem. The Potters eventually found him, and there begun the awkward explanation of what Harry did in his free time. To say James and Lily were shocked would be a gross understatement.

At first Harry was grounded, punished severely for disobeying his parents. But then, after a great deal of encouragement from Harry's godfather, Remus, James and Lily realized that Harry's intelligence should be lauded, not spurned. While it was a long transition between James and Lily's realization of Harry's intellect, and their acceptance, Harry realized that their finding out was indeed for the better. Though they still treated Harry somewhat like a child, he was eventually granted the laboratory back and they allowed him to pick up ingredients and items that he needed from Diagon Alley. While it was still a longshot from full independence, Harry thought that it was definitely worth it.

In those few years, Harry noticed interesting things happening with Godric and at Hogwarts. The rumor after his first year was that Godric had somehow killed one of the Hogwarts professors. His parents kept the truth very quiet, and he didn't hear anything more about the matter from them. Second year, Harry knew that Hogwarts was almost shut down due to petrifications, and he knew that Godric had done something to stop them from happening again, but he did not know what. Harry really did not want to be mixed into all of the happenings of Hogwarts, so he decided that Hogwarts was not the right school for him. He had only found out later, when deciding which schools to apply to, that Hogwarts was ranked relatively low in the international magical school ranking system; ranking 44th out of 96 magical schools. He decided to apply to Beauxbatons, which ranked second after Mumbai Magical Academy, Durmstrang, which ranked fourth, and Salem, which ranked eighth. He was admitted through the first round in all three, which was a theoretical test. Lily and James took him to each school, where he and the rest of the students who had passed the first round took a practical test and toured the school. After being admitted into all three, Harry made a decision, Beauxbatons was the best one. He didn't really want to go to Durmstrang as it wasn't as good as Beauxbatons or Salem, and Salem was a bit too theoretical for his tastes. Beauxbatons, despite its physical location in France, was technically its own entity, and was not a part of France. It catered to a variety of different students from different cultural backgrounds and different places, so it took the language that most students spoke, English, as its main language. English was relatively essential in the wizarding world, as even in foreign countries, most people spoke English on a day-to-day basis along with their other language. But in the wizarding world, it was not really a problem to learn a language; strong translation spells would allow the listener to understand the language while still hearing the words in a foreign dialect. Nevertheless, Harry had chosen Beauxbatons as his school, and Harry was going to Beauxbatons despite Lily and James's fervent attempts to get him to change his mind.

In that year, something strange had gone on at Hogwarts as well. It seemed that Peter Pettigrew, betrayer of the Potters, had escaped Azkaban and Harry knew that Godric was involved in some way. The rumor was that Pettigrew was hunting down Godric to bring him to Lord Voldemort, but that had to just be a rumor because Voldemort was dead, right? Harry didn't want to believe that Voldemort was rising again, but he realized that with Godric's unknown magic that blocked the killing curse, there could be room for error, room that Voldemort could use to survive. But regardless, it seemed that Pettigrew had almost succeeded in taking Godric, but Harry's godfather, Remus, who taught at Hogwarts that year, intervened. Unfortunately, Pettigrew escaped again.

But Harry left all of that behind in order to concentrate on his adventures up ahead. He would be going to school, making new friends and alliances that would last him a lifetime. He would have to study hard and gain immense skill at Beauxbatons. But Harry was ready; he was up to the challenge.

* * *

Three nauseating portkey journeys later, and Harry stood tired at the entrance of Beauxbatons. Following the trail of students walking up to the large central building, Harry exchanged pleasantries with his fellow classmates, who were some of the brightest students in the world. He read that there was a customary speech delivered by the headmistress before orientation, and Harry couldn't wait. He quickly entered the building and grabbed a seat next to a girl with long blonde hair and a boy with dark black hair. Exchanging his hand to the girl, who's expression seemed more inviting, he said "Hi, I'm Harry."

"Hello," the girl said in a slight French accent. "My name is Gabrielle. You are English, yes,"

"Yeah," Harry said. "Are you French?" he asked.

"Oui," Gabrielle said. "There are many French students in our year. I think that there are thirty."

"Oh," Harry said. "Did you know English before you knew you were going here?" he asked.

"Yes," Gabrielle answered. "My older sister, she did not know English before she came here, so she had trouble making friends the first month or so. She could understand English, of course, due to a translation spell, but she could not speak it."

"That's a shame. Well your English is very good," he said.

"Thank you. I have been fluent in both languages since my sister was admitted to Beauxbatons, six years ago." she said.

"Oh, your sister is in her seventh year," Harry asked.

"Yes, and she's a favorite to win for the tri-wizard tournament," Gabrielle said.

"The tri-wizard tournament?" Harry asked. "What's that?"

"You really don't know?" Gabrielle asked.

"No, my parents like to keep me in the dark about these things," Harry said.

"Oh," Gabrielle said. "Well the tri-wizard tournament is a tournament that used to run every four years between Beauxbatons, Durmstrang, and Hogwarts. This was back when Hogwarts was on par with Beauxbatons and Durmstrang of course, and also when they were competing for first, second, and third magical schools in the country. But essentially, a magical artefact called the Goblet of Fire would choose three champions, one from each school. The champions would compete in three tasks, and the winner would win the tri-wizard cup, and the pride in hosting the next tri-wizard tournament."

"That's quite interesting," Harry said.

"It gets better. The last time the tri-wizard tournament was held, all three champions died in the first task. Since there was no winner, the tradition was not upheld, mostly due to the danger involved in the tournament. This year, however, Hogwarts has decided to hold the tournament once again, and we must compete to put Hogwarts back in its place." she said.

"What do you mean, back in its place?" Harry asked.

"Well, from what I've heard, Hogwarts makes itself out to be the best magical school in the world. That is contested between Beauxbatons, Mumbai Magical Academy, and Beijing Academy of Magic every year; Hogwarts is nowhere near where we are. We must respond to Hogwarts's challenge, or we will be shown to be inferior. We can easily destroy the Hogwarts students." she said.

"Wow, it looks like you're caught up in the school rivalry," Harry said.

"No, it's just that I am completely against the decision made by Hogwarts. They issue this challenge knowing that we cannot back down; our reputation will not allow it." she said.

"I see," Harry said. Harry was about to continue the conversation when he was stopped by the arrival of the largest woman that he had ever seen in his life. He immediately knew she had to be part-giant; eight feet, she could still be human, but ten was too much. Harry didn't have anything against half-breeds, as the ministry roughly put it, and he knew that he was in a school that admitted wizards and witches despite species, whether giant, goblin, veela, elf, vampyr, werewolf, or the most common, human. Harry himself had a bit of elf in his blood; as his grandmother was an elf. Technically, Harry supposed that none of these species could actually be called different species by the Muggle definition of the term as they could all inter-breed. In any event, Harry was part-elf, and he supposed that other students in his year could be other species as well. Harry's musings were cut short, as Gabrielle started talking.

"That's Madame Maxine, the headmistress," she said. "She always begins every year with an intimidating speech to the first-years. It's supposed to make us scared, but she's actually quite nice if you get to know her."

"Students of Beauxbatons," Maxine said. "I am your headmistress, Professor Maxine. All of you are among the top of your year in magical calibre, intellect, and athleticism. You have been carefully chosen- handpicked from the vast magical population of the world. I will tell you firsthand: Beauxbatons is tough. You will spend long hours studying, practicing, and working hard. And Beauxbatons is not your friend. Do not get too attached to your peers; one third of you will not graduate from Beauxbatons. But the result, I can guarantee you, is worth it. Those of you who exit Beauxbatons will be at the top of your year. You will be able to pursue a career in anything you want, the options are limitless. You will be strong, Beauxbatons will mold you, taking away all of your flaws. And you will succeed. Now, let the Beauxbatons orientation begin!"

As she said those words, Harry had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. And he was proved right; immediately afterwards, the lights in the building turned off and the tables and chairs disappeared. Harry noted the crashing of many of the students as they fell to the floor; he was on guard, and was able to catch himself and stand up.

"And now," Maxine's booming voice began. "The orientation begins. Your goal is to be the last one standing, and we do not want any permanent damage. Begin."

The lights turned back on, as the students were getting up, most confused as to what was going on. Suddenly, a beam of light jetted past Harry and hit one of his fellow students, coming from the sullen boy who had sat beside him. Harry smirked, understanding what was going on as the fallen boy suddenly vanished. He would enjoy this game.

The set of tables had disappeared, leaving behind an arena of sorts. It had a few large walls, which served as areas of cover, which the intelligent students ran for immediately. Harry sighed at their naiveté, while the strategy would help them in the short run, they couldn't win; there were too few areas of cover, and too many people, eventually they would be attacked.

Harry whipped out both of his wands, yielding one defensively in his left hand and the other offensively in his right. He started with a disillusionment spell on himself, which would allow him to go unseen by the crowd. Instead of running for cover, he started a mind-shield, a weak shield that wouldn't stop a beam of magic, but would deter it and notify Harry of the magic's existence, so he could dodge. Grinning to himself, for it was his first real fight, Harry slowly made his way to the far wall of the building, taking out five students on his way there. Eventually, when it was safe, he would go to a shielding wall and wait it out, but that was only after there were less than ten students remaining.

Harry estimated that about fifty students remained after the initial bloodbath, out of approximately one hundred, he noticed. He blocked a few incoming spells, and dispatched two more students. Essentially, the disillusionment spell allowed the caster to take the form of his background, making him nearly undetectable to the naked eye. However, the problem was that magic wasn't invisible, the disillusionment spell did nothing about shadows, and looking right at him negated the effects of the spell. Still, it gave him a powerful advantage over his peers.

Surely enough, the students who had initially made their way to the walls had been attacked and were eliminated from the game. A while passed, with Harry not attacking anyone, and no one attacking Harry. He watched as a boy standing in a corner, the one who had originally sat beside him, defeated every enemy that came near him, whirling around and wielding his wand with ease. He seemed like a professional. Unfortunately, as good as he was, Harry was better, and as Harry recognized that he was the biggest threat, he decided that he would take the boy out first.

Discretely conjuring a flat piece of wood beneath him and casting a disillusionment spell on the wood, Harry levitated the wood-piece with his left hand, moving himself above all the fighting and toward the boy. He would have to reveal himself through his magic, which left him vulnerable to attack, but Harry didn't care; as soon as the boy was dead, he could fly as fast as he could toward his retreat and hide himself. Harry shot six Stupefies in rapid succession on the boy, smiling when the boy's expression changed from smug to confused. Grinning inwardly to himself at the boy's attempt to block all of them, his smile turned to a frown when he realized that the boy had succeeded, though he was still looking at him with a bewildered expression. The boy, however, was not prepared for Gabrielle's assault, as while Harry was keeping him busy, Gabrielle had attacked him, and he was unable to defend. Harry zoomed off back to his retreat when he felt a twinge in his mind shield and immediately ducked as a beam of light whizzed past him. He increased his height and turned around, but locked eyes with Gabrielle. Harry looked down onto himself only to realize that he was not disillusioned; Gabrielle must have cast the revealing spell. Quickly casting a disillusionment spell on himself again as Gabrielle continued her onslaught, Harry cursed and dived back to cover. His destruction mission had been a success, but it had lead to unforeseen issues.

He was confident that Gabrielle couldn't cast a disillusionment spell; after all, if she could have, she already would have. Additionally, the revealing spell was much easier to cast than the disillusionment spell, meaning that Gabrielle would probably be looking for shadows. Identifying her as his next biggest threat, Harry crept past two boys, who had made an alliance, short-range stunning both of them in the back. He took to the air again on another conjured piece of wood, looking for Gabrielle. The good thing about being in the air was that even if Gabrielle was able to spot his shadow, he'd be able to shoot her down long before she could identify where he was. He noticed with a smile that only five students remained, two boys and three girls, with each student, besides him of course, hiding behind a wall. Deciding to take them down individually without revealing his position, and memorizing where each of them was, he started on an Asian girl. She had a determined look on her face, as well as a semi-cocky smirk; she obviously thought she was going to win. Smoothly landing his board right behind her without a sound, Harry shot a nonverbal Stupefy, catching her by the back. Unfortunately, her scream revealed his position, so getting back on his board, he levitated himself, and flew back to Gabrielle. He noticed that the other boy had eliminated a girl in a long range spell-fight, so he decided that the next step would be to take out Gabrielle. It would be trickier than he had previously imagined though, as while he had defeated the girl, she had set up some sort of a ward.

It was obvious that Gabrielle was educated in Ancient Runes through the ward she had set up. Harry recognized it as a standard Plellus Ward, which was an application of an early Greek rune. It essentially would remove all disguises, including Polyjuice potion and disillusionment charms. The catch was that it ran on Gabrielle's magical power, and the radius of the ward was about five meters, meaning that it would take approximately 25% of the average wizard's magical power, probably less for Gabrielle. Quickly changing his mind about Gabrielle, and deciding that it wasn't worth it to attack her, he made for the other boy, quickly dispatching him. Deciding that with two people left, it would come to a test of magical power regardless of the conditions, Harry decided that his only option was to attack Gabrielle. However, he would have to do it intelligently.

Conjuring another piece of wood, and levitating it, he quickly got on, and guided himself toward the wall which he knew she was behind. Her ward had extended for a five meter radius, but above that, Harry could do anything. Quickly going above the required five meters, he conjured and banished a rock at her back, hoping to catch her off guard but not do any major damage. He was right on target, and as she quickly turned around, he descended right beneath her, shooting a nonverbal Stupefy and ending the match.

Harry chuckled to himself as the lights turned off again and turned back on, revealing an immaculate pristine room restored to how it was before. He was confident that he would enjoy his time at Beauxbatons.


End file.
